Here it is, the November installment of my favorite books to use in speech therapy. These posts are really very exciting for me to create, so thank YOU for reading! If you checked in for September and October, you know that I don't use all of these books each month every year. I generally choose two per month for grades 1 and 2, separately. I do this because often times the teachers also use these books when I push into classrooms and I like that my first graders won't know the books I'm using when they get to 2nd grade.
If you are wondering about other grade levels. These books can often be used across elementary grades and when I did more traditional, pull-out speech therapy, these spanned a greater range of my caseload. I'll share more about my current kindergarten plans in a later post. For 3rd-5th grades, I use whatever is happening in the classroom. Sometimes that is a picture book. Other times it's a novel, grade level passage or text book. The focus is more on strategies, so I will pull from materials like this, to support language and literacy.
Here’s the list of books I have set aside for November.
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Turk and Runt by Lisa Wheeler
Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey
Duck for President by Doreen Cronin
Balloons over Broadway by Melissa Sweet
Scarecrow’s Hat by Ken Brown
Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano
Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
If you don't use books about Thanksgiving, check back to the September or October posts for books you may not have used.
Here’s what I target with just about EVERY book:
→Sequencing, retelling, summarizing, story grammar/elements (character, setting, problem, events, consequences, ending/solution)
→Tier 1 describing, Tier 2 vocabulary, synonyms & antonyms
→Comparing & contrasting/similarities & differences
→Basic concepts, direction words, temporal concepts
→WH questions-basic and inferential
→Inferencing-social/pragmatic
→Verbs & pronouns
→Sentence generation-higher level structures, conversational, expansion
→Articulation
Here are my "top targets" for each book.
Similarities & differences
Inferencing-social/pragmatic
No one EVER listens to Runt. Thank goodness Runt does not give up trying to win the attention of his family. This is a great book for multiple perspectives and persevering through challenges. Check out my book companion.
Problem solving
Story grammar
Duck takes matters into his own hands to attempt to achieve an easier life. This story has a lot of wit and will definitely connect with kids wishing to show some independence. If you need a quick prep lesson plan aid, check out this resource.
Tier 1 describing & Tier 2 defining
Sequencing events
This book was shared by one of my dear friends, over at Doyle Speech Works. It is a true story of the Macy's parade puppeteer. The pictures are amazing, the story is engaging and it's perfect for budding engineer minds. I created a book companion and if you need to extend this for older students, make sure you see this resource.
'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving
Story grammar/elements
Past tense verbs
Tier 2 vocabulary
Predicting
This was my second ever book companion created. This story never gets old. I always anticipate what my students will say when the children become "mysteriously fatter” at the end of the story (spoiler alert). If you need some engaging resources, check out this companion.
The Scarecrow's Hat
Story grammar (problem/solution)
Predicting
Choices (Would You Rather...)
Tier 1 describing
One resourceful chicken gains help from the farm animals to come up with many solutions to the animals' requests.
Stone Soup
For some reason, I never get around to using this book in therapy, likely because my teachers use it during the short week before Thanksgiving, so my reason for including it is the yummy "stone soup" I get to eat. I can smell it now. Each student brings in a can of vegetables, broth, or potatoes for the soup. It’s all thrown in a crock pot and simmered all day for our afternoon enjoyment! This would be a great speech and language activity.
Are there any books I have missed that I must add to my collection?
